Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
Important: This is the sequel to The Hammer Falls. You should read that first, otherwise things won't make sense at all.
Act II
Storming the Gates
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England and St. George!'
The Life of Henry the Fifth, Act III, Scene I
William Shakespeare
"So, how's it going with Procyon?" Gennai lounged around, leaning against the wall in the room of the lounge, a room embellished with rich old polished woods that almost glowed a deep brown. The place was filled with the decorations of an old English sitting room, something created by nobility for nobility. Only a single set of computerized viewscreens looked out of place, sitting on top of a polished walnut desk in the corner.
"Acceptable I suppose." Justice lounged against the corner and watched the patterns of lights move overhead in the sky, dancing and weaving in and out of the heavens themselves.
"Not well I take it."
"Not as well as I would like." Justice does not move, does not give any indication. "Our casualties will be high."
"They always are." Gennai brushed a hand over a shelf of old books, as if looking for some ancient tome, but nothing attracted his interest.
"I must admit, the fact that we ended up impressing the Digidestined to clean up a mess we made, and to get involved in this pointless war, does sort of tug on my nerves."
"You're turning into an old man Justice. You know as well as I that what they have to do is necessary."
"I guess I am turning into an old man. I'm what, a thousand years old by this time, and older if you count experience. If I can't behave like an old man, who can? I just feel we could have at least given them a choice." Justice smiled and flipped one arm up to point at the sky.
"I can for one. I'm a lot older than you are you know."
Justice laughed. "That's it. We're a brace of foolish old men. What can we do?"
Gennai laid a gentle hand on Justice's shoulder. "Change the world old friend. Change the world."
Episode XIV
Powers Held on High
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
Knowledge itself is power
Religious Meditations, Of Heresies
Francis Bacon
Warning: Absolutely NO Ideas Past This Point!
Sign on the Citadel Edelver R&D Lab
Attributed to Cortell
"I hope so, I'm running out of places to look." Leomon peered around, as if his continued stare could pierce the clouds of darkness lurking under the branches of every tree.
"They couldn't have just packed up and moved everything, could they have?" Ogremon asked. "It would be just like them to leave us here all alone, wouldn't it."
"You still haven't said who this us is." Tai complained, staring around at the trunks of the old trees that lay here and there, decorating the landscape like a forest of misplaced Roman columns.
"Well, I trust them." Mimi replied heatedly.
"Hold on Mimi, it's not that I don't trust them. It's just that I hate being left out of the loop."
"Tai, you live out of the loop." Matt looked back at him.
"Oh no." Gabumon sighed. "Is it their turn to fight again already?"
"I hope not." Agumon just sounded tired. "I'm tired of cleaning up the mess afterwards."
"Ah ha!" Leomon pointed with one huge hairy paw. "Right through there I think."
"Halt, who goes there? What's the password?" Yelled another voice, coming out of the woods ahead. It sounded vaguely familiar to the rest of them.
"It's us Frigimon." Centarumon called, rearing up on his hind legs for just a moment to draw himself to his full height. "But we don't know the password at the moment."
"Oh, is it you? And who are you?" A familiar white head, looking like a snowman with a serious weight problem, peered around a tree suspiciously. A moment later the eyes widened. "Oh wow! Leomon, Ogremon, Centarumon! You must have escaped just a bit ago! Holy cow, I'm glad to see you guys. And what's this, new recruits?" The white head peered out even farther, and the eyes widened even more until the effect was comical. "Oh wow! It's even better! It's the Digidestined. Hey kids, remember me?"
"Of course we remember you. You and your sub-zero ice punch." Tai waved at him, laughing. "How are you doing Frigimon?"
"Well, not to good, we haven't been winning that much if you know what I mean, but other than that, I'm doing fine." Frigimon stepped all the way around, and he was as big as they all remembered him being from File Island. "But everyone will be really happy to see you, especially those that know you already."
"Know us already, what do you mean?" Izzy sounded curious, but Frigimon was already gesturing them to follow him. Quickly he led them through a maze of trees, occasionally looking around as if searching for landmarks, and then gesturing them onward again once he found his bearings.
"Did the boss make it out okay? When they attacked the tree we got caught inside and didn't see what happened up top." Leomon turned to Frigimon.
"Boss, what boss?" Tai asked impatiently, but Agumon grabbed onto his hand to keep him from plunging ahead in a verbal cavalry charge.
"Oh, you haven't heard." Frigimon's ears drooped, a difficult feat for a snowman. "No, no, he didn't get out. The others are trying to figure out a way to deal with that now."
"Really? Then we've arrived just in time." Leomon seemed pleased.
"Goody, some more action." Ogremon just sounded like he was trying to be tough.
At that moment Frigimon pushed aside some branches and exposed the entrance to what looked like a hill. For a moment they stared at it, before realizing that beneath the hill was an entire artificial cave, or, more accurately, the hill had been built on top of a large, rotund building. Inside they could just make out faint lights illuminating different parts of the building on a regular interval.
As they went inside, and as their eyes adjusted to the dark, the shapes inside, living Digimon moving around quietly, seemed to suddenly recognize their presence. Suddenly the shapes resolved into figures much more concrete and real-like, and a forest of curious eyes surrounded them, watching them.
"I am pleased to see you again Digidestined." The clanking voice was familiar, and Andromon stepped carefully and mechanically out from the crowd behind him. "I was informed that you were in this area, but I was not told that you would dropping by. And I am doubly pleased to see our comrades bravely rescued."
"Hey, we're all happy to see all of them." Meramon stepped forward as well, and from the way he winked it was virtually certain that this was the same Digimon who they had met so many years before.
"Hmmm" Tai had not realized how tall the building might stretch until Monzaemon showed up towering over him, staring down at him with giant red teddy bear eyes. "I certainly hadn't expected to see any of you for a long time. This is a pleasure."
"So this is where you all went!" Mimi exclaimed. "I wonder why we could never find you back in our area of the Digital World."
"Andromon was there." Agumon reminded them.
"Yes, I was the last." Andromon looked at them very seriously. "I was left as a last guard to keep watch on the land. Although I was not unable to prevent the arrival of the Digimon Emperor, I was able to assist you in some small way. Then I came here to aid these others in the defense of our world."
"So now is everybody here?" Tai asked.
"Almost everybody. We are still missing your old friend Piximon. Gennai placed him in charge of this little operation, but he appears to be missing from what Frigimon has told us." Leomon turned from the children to the group of Digimon who were staring at them.
"Piximon! He's here?" Mimi exclaimed.
"Was here." Andromon reported. "This is our emergency headquarters. Our old one used to be in a giant house inside a tree deep in the woods, a fair distance from here."
"We've been there. That's where we rescued them." Gabumon told the other group.
Andromon just nodded before continuing. "This is certainly something interesting. We will have to discuss it later. Anyway, the forces of Daemon found us there, and attacked before we could escape. Although we were sorely beset by our enemies, most of us managed to disappear into the surrounding forest. However, Piximon was trapped before he could complete the evacuation."
"Trapped. Where is he now?" Centarumon wanted to know.
"We believe that Datamon carted him off." Andromon raised a hand and a variety of digital lights appeared in the air before him in odd patterns. "Unimon, flying a high reconnaissance mission, managed to get a brief glimpse of what he thought was Piximon before he was carted off. However, at this point he was engaged by a pair of Kuwagamon, and was forced to withdraw from the field. We tracked the group he was with, and they appear to have taken him to Datamon's underground laboratory over by Kaltuth."
"Datamon!" Sora exclaimed, shivering just a little. "I thought he was destroyed."
"Perhaps he was, but this may be a new one. In any case, this Datamon is continually fixated on examining and cross-examining all Digimon, and he has been serving as Daemon's chief, wellscientist. We were just in the process of planning a rescue mission."
"Piximon's an old friend. I hope you'll count us in." Tai spoke up for the group.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't mind another crack at that walking tin can." Agumon growled.
"With you adding to our presence, it would not be difficult to dramatically increase our abilities." Andromon looked rather pleased. "It is not easy for us to risk Digimon in such a venture. But you are the Digidestined, and as such, have powers that we are not accustomed to. If you think that you can help"
"Better than that, we might be able to do it all. I think that Zudomon and Lilymon can handle that garbage disposal, and there's a distinct possibility that one of our Digimon might be able to go to Ultimate as well. Maybe all of ours." Matt sounded excited. "We're used to this sort of thing. We might as well do the work here."
"Yeah. No offense or anything, but with Piximon, wellit's sort of personal. Just tell us what you know and we'll get the job done." Tai sounded like he had decided that it was his turn to be mindlessly enthusiastic.
"Is it just me or are we starting to suffer from a lot of overconfidence?" Sora asked Izzy very quietly.
"I think it's worse. Matt was the one who suggested the attack, and he's usually the quiet one. I think Tai went along with it to avoid being one-upped by Matt. It's all really confusing to me, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about it." Izzy shrugged and went back to examining the display of lights zooming around in the air.
"I guess one thing's as good as another." Sora muttered as they sat around. Tai was already discussing things with Andromon about how they were going to fight, and where they were going to fight. Matt was helping out, volunteering what seemed to be partially absurd ideas. Mimi and Joe looked bored.
"Well, they will come up with something, and I'm sure it will be a workable plan. Don't worry Sora, everything will come out all right in the end, I'm certain of it."
"So, that's the place?" Tai asked, squinting through his goggles.
"That's the place all right." Leomon looked down. The spot he was looking at was built into the canyon walls, a single door made out of what looked like battleship-grade steel armor. If Izzy and Andromon were correct, the vast plateau stretching out toward the horizon provided the roof for Datamon's underground laboratory, and the door might be the only entrance.
"Ventilation shafts?" Matt asked Izzy, who was trying to zoom in on things with his laptop.
"Of course. Do you think you can squeeze through the force shields and the energy traps? This isn't a spy movie. I don't know if such things even exist here, but I think that Datamon has already heard of them, and he appears to have trapped his ventilation ducts."
"Back door?" Tai suggested.
"Checked and double checked. He doesn't seem to have one."
"Escape tunnel?" Matt looked around for a pile of rock that would make a handy exit.
"Can't find one at all. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need one, or maybe it's too well hidden. Maybe he just has some sort of portal generator somewhere in his lab. And even if we could find it, I bet it's full of traps and alarms."
"Aqueduct?" Joe thought for a moment.
"Underground water table. We might as well try to dig our way in." Izzy looked down at the map again.
"Chimneys, exhaust pipes?" Joe continued.
"Hmmmmdon't seem to be any. Of course, since this is the DigiWorld, I'm hardly surprised at this turn of events."
"Well, you're just full of good news, aren't you." Tai sounded like he was sulking and he turned back to watching the plateau as if more watching would create a door for him. Wind stirred his hair for a moment, but nothing happened across the valley.
"I'm sorry Tai, I can't create things that aren't there." Izzy replied, not sounding very happy himself, but the others had already turned to other topics.
"Maybe we could fool the guards and walk in." Tai was elaborating his plan with a series of over-enthusiastic hand gestures.
"Maybe, but I doubt it." Matt replied, pointing. "Look, we've been surveying the whole area for almost a day now, and we haven't seen anybody. It's pretty obvious that they aren't expecting somebody to just come knocking on the door."
"We could say we were lost." Mimi suggested brightly. "Maybe they'd let us in to help us."
"With Datamon it's more likely they would let us in to do experiments on us." Sora replied, shooting Mimi a quick look.
"Oh well, it was just an idea." Mimi looked just a little embarrassed.
"I have an idea." Joe suggested after a moment.
"What?" Everybody asked a bit waspishly.
"Well, once when I was littler, our upstairs neighbor was doing some experimenting with a large, heavy, fish tank. He dropped it off its pedestal, and it fell right through the ceiling and drenched me with about two hundred liters of fish water and a very irritated snapping turtle. It took them half an hour to get the stupid thing to let go of me. I was just thinking, could we go through his roof. After all, it's right there. Then again, it's probably a pretty stupid idea."
"Actually, that's a pretty good idea. I think we might be able to do it. Izzy?"
"Leave it to me to fill in the details. Let me checkif geological patterns match thenhow does this work again.let's see, comparative hardness goes heresay allowing for steel support roofcompute stress modulushopefully get an answer. Okay, yes, I think that if we use Zudomon we can smash through the roof, but it will create a lot of noise."
"Don't worry about that." Leomon swelled up. "Ogremon and I will launch an assault on the doors as a feint to distract them, and give you time to break in. If we make enough noise they might not even notice you, and you can get out with Piximon before they even realize you're there."
"Too bad." Tai sighed. "And here I was looking forward to taking a can opener to that arrogant jerk."
"Why do I have to do all the work?" Gomamon asked, in the tone of voice that indicated that it was time to needle Joe again.
"Well, I suppose we could give you all shovels instead" Joe began, but Gomamon backed off as all the other Digimon glared at him.
"All right, it's decided!" Tai stated. "Let's kick it off!"
I think there's something wrong with this, Izzy told himself sternly, but I can't figure out what it is, so I don't think that I'm going to worry about it.
"Fist of the Beast King!"
"Pummel Whack!"
Two furious explosions made their way across the front of the plateau, blasting away chunks of old rock, the color of beach sand, and leaving a fine mist of dirt and debris in their wake. Two blasts, one of purple fire, and one of a corresponding orange, did the work of about ten thousand years of erosion in a matter of seconds. As the dirt settled, the door remained intact, although now pitted, but the area around the door was blown about half a meter inward.
It had been Sora and Biyomon who pointed out, while they were still planning everything, that the area around the door might not be as strong as the door itself, and more susceptible to their vigorous attack. It might even be possible to blow the supports around the door down. Leomon and Ogremon were only supposed to be providing a distraction, but they acted as if they had every intention of storming the gates all by themselves.
"Man, it looks like they haven't even noticed." Joe remarked, peering at the whole scene.
"Well, if I was them, I would be waiting inside the building." Gabumon responded. "That way, when they came through the door, they would be caught in a crossfire."
"Then it's a good thing they aren't going through that door." Tentomon fluttered and hovered anxiously nearby.
"Indeed." Izzy looked around a little anxiously.
"Shall we get to it?" Agumon asked nervously.
"Let's go, I'm tired of standing out here in the open." Tai complained, looking grumpier than usual.
"Right, time to go Gomamon." Joe grabbed his D3 and thrust it out.
"Gomamondigivolves toIkkakumon!"
"Ikkakumondigivolves toZudomon!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!" A massive blow with the gray metal hammer removed any trace of doubt from their minds as to the Ultimate's awe inspiring muscle power. Rock shattered and pummeled into oblivion under the force of that mighty hammer, sending chips flying through the air like knives. Fortunately, Zudomon, with some foresight, had placed himself between them and the impact sight, meaning that the chips and dangerous parts flicked off of him instead of impacting in soft flesh. As the dust cleared everybody could see a huge hole in the carved rock, descending into a cavern sheathed in smooth metal, and illuminated brightly by artificial lighting.
"Looks like we got in. De-Digivolve Zudomon, and we'll see if we can sneak in quietly, eh?"
"Quietly? Just how do we do that?" Biyomon murmured as she observed the huge hole they had just created in the ground.
"Never mind that, let's just go." Matt muttered impatiently.
"This place is empty." Sora told them, coming back from the gray-metal door that she had just opened and looked through. "If there's anybody here, they're doing a really good job of hiding."
Ceiling tiles lay around them in random patterns, marking the method they had used to enter the building. Computers, standing on metal tables and counters around the room, were the predominant devices, along with the huge black viewscreens mounted along the walls. Buttons flashed in what seemed like random patterns, different colors as well, red, blue and green, illuminating the walls. Glowing white fluorescent lamps glared down at them like baleful eyes, wondering at this strange intrusion. One screen still functioned, and it displayed a variety of different views of what appeared to be the structure that they were in.
"You see that?" Tai asked, pointing at the functioning screen. "Security cameras. I bet this place is some kind of security center, and what we're looking at is the master control system."
"Or something. Come on, this place makes me nervous." Agumon started fidgeting again, watching as Gomamon greedily gulped down a few pieces of dried bread.
"No. Izzy, see if you can tap into the computers and find out where they're keeping Piximon."
"Right." Izzy plugged his trusty laptop into the system and let the data streams wash over him, but hardly needed to use his hacking skills. A quick inquiry, sent into the system's mainframe returned a quick response, a suspiciously quick response, along with a map, showing both their position and the location of the goal which they were seeking. A map popped up, in three dimensions, displaying their situation in rendered detail, and showing their problems.
"Wow, so this is us? Good, then Datamon is keeping Piximon in a cage of some sort right down that hallway." Tai pointed. "Let's go."
"Wait for me!" Matt called as Tai charged off down the hallway.
"And us!" Everybody else shouted, rushing after them.
"Give me a moment guys." Izzy pleaded as he struggled to disconnect his laptop from the computer mainframe without causing undue problems. Meanwhile, as he fumbled with the computer cable, and as it seemed determined to snare him and snarl in the worst possible way, he struggled with a difficult concept. Why is it, in the middle of an attack, the security center is unmanned?
"All right, now where?" Tai asked as he screeched to a halt, with the others almost running into him from behind, staring around quizzically at the bare metal walls that enclosed them. Instead of the promised cage and jail sequence everywhere they looked they were surrounded by bits of metal and machinery, looking, for all the world, like the reject pile in an automobile junkyard. Overhead, the lights buzzed erratically with the force of the last attack, causing an unpleasant buzzing sound, and an uneven, flickering, light.
His answer came in the form of a metallic crunch, as the doorway behind him slammed shut, a huge slab of solid steel sealing them inside the artificial cavern. For a moment, nobody moved as the reverberations of that impact echoed and re-echoed inside the hallway, rattling loose components in the pieces of junk scattered around. Then, as one, they all turned around rapidly, spinning in circles in a vain attempt to find an exit.
"It's a trap!" Joe howled.
"Quick, we'll digivolve and blow our way out of here" Agumon began, but then the became aware of another sound, partially hidden in the echoes of their panic. Hissing, at first faint, but then increasingly loud, emerged from the cracks at the corner of the room they were now trapped in. Artfully concealed by the piled junk, pneumatic jets spewed forth a strange concoction of gases into the room, gases which quickly spread and enveloped everyone in a thick blanket of fog.
Within seconds everybody was collapsed on the floor, unconscious and passed out, waiting for another to deal with them.
After a few minutes there was a sucking sound, and the gases were quickly removed from the atmosphere, replaced with regular air. Ahead of them the door cracked open, and several sinister figures were revealed, marching in to take charge of the situation. A pair of Minotaurumon and a pair of Gorillamon quickly began to manhandle their charges outside into a waiting cart. Beside them, the small, metallic shape of Datamon moved steadily through the sudden mess on his floors, examining each body. At the end of his impromptu investigation, he stood up angrily.
"The six Digimon are here, but there are only five humans! Where is the missing Digidestined!? Find them now!"
Koushiro Izumi, known usually to his friends as Izzy huddled inside a storage cabinet, feeling alone and lost and useless, which meant that he was too miserable to worry a lot about being hungry, tired and thirsty. Fortunately, from the dust that was hovering everywhere this place had not been bothered in some time, so he felt fairly safe living here for the time being. This should not be confused into thinking that he felt safe, he just felt safer in here than he did out there.
In here was someplace fairly big, a large room, gray to match the rest of this strange outpost's décor, and stacked with boxes and crates of different sizes and shapes in neat, orderly piles, each one decorated with a single attachment that appeared to be some sort of data storage device to mark them. Izzy had so far been unable to determine either what was inside of them, or exactly where he was, or what he should do next.
All he did know was what had happened. When the doors slammed shut, he and his laptop were still on the wrong side, but everyone else was on the other side. At that point he had started banging on the doors, but loud sounds had warned him of the approach of others. Under the cover of the sudden confusion, he had managed to slip into a narrow side passage just in time to witness the arrival of the main force through another door. Identifying Datamon and the others, and realizing just how completely outmatched he was without Tentomon and the others, he had crept away, not wanting to be anywhere near when Datamon actually got around to counting his prisoners. Now, several corridors and empty rooms later, the panic instincts had been suppressed, and the normal guilt reflex was kicking in.
"Why did I do that?" He asked himself, pounding one leg angrily. "I should have stayed and helped them. But I did the best I could, didn't I?"
The crates and boxes steadfastly refused to give him an answer.
"Okay, not a good time to panic Izzy. Take a few deep breaths and calm yourself, count to ten, do something to keep your cool." Izzy breathed in and out deeply five times before he felt calm enough to proceed to the next logical steps in the plan. "Now do something productive. What do you have to do? Right now, you have to hide. Have you done that?"
This time, although silence reigned supreme, the enclosing walls of boxes and crates gave him a reassuring answer.
"All right, so we've got that taken care of. Now for the next part, what else do you have to do? First keep alive and out of Datamon's clutches, then rescue your friends. Right? Right. That should cover everything. Now, how do we do that?"
Nothing answered him.
"Blast it Izumi!" Izzy slammed his fist down on the ground, almost hard enough to break bones. "You've got to have some idea, something, anythinggo see what you've got around you."
He cautiously got up, ears alert to any sound. Before he even made it to the door, the sound of blowing air in the distance and the creaks of the compound sending his heart rate soaring and causing him to freeze in panicked terror three times. By the time he actually got to the door and cautiously pulled it open a single crack he was nearing collapse from the simple fear and the confusion of being alone, but there was nothing else to do, so he pulled the door open.
On the other side was a very large room that looked very familiar to Izzy. Each wall was lined with huge cabinets with clear, plastic doors, each one filled with rows of shaped glass and plastic, glimmering in artificial light almost like the tinsel on a Christmas tree. Some of those containers were full and labeled, some were not. The middle of the room was filled with a variety of different machines and computers, some of which Izzy recognized as basic laboratory equipment, gleaming as if they had all been recently cleaned. Computers and monitoring devices beeped happily along their current path, as if they were waiting for something exciting to happen, erratically welcoming the observing eye and ear to examine their findings so far. Circuits hummed in the distance, beginning at a very low pitch and rising higher and higher as different devices engaged, and then falling off as they disengaged. There was nobody in sight, and from the state of the huge, solid-steel, double-barred doors, there was unlikely to be anybody there for a long time.
"Hmmmit appears that Datamon is engaging in research of some sort, perhaps some basic fundamental science. It would appear not to be that complicated if I can recognize most of the machinery. Well, this appears to be a dull sort of laboratory, so I should be reasonably safe here, for the time being that is." Izzy wandered briefly through the machinery as if wondering what everything was doing, prodding and poking curiously through the mess of gear, as if another prod would reveal some previously hidden insight to the investigator. Finally, after a long time, he sat down and absently started downloading data of the local mainframe into his computer at a handy computer connection, first taking care to instigate a number of different methods for keeping his computer link untraceable.
"Why am I sitting here?" he asked himself after a minute. "There's not much happening here, is there, or am I falling victim to my fear? That is an unpleasant possibility."
Somewhere in the distance there was a faint clank as a machine turned over whatever it had been examining and then began to examine it from a different direction. A few beams of light from a laser apparatus hidden in the background played over the ceiling as if there was sunlight, shining through a spinning piece of glass.
"I wish it were someone else here. Tai would have thought up a plan by now, and implemented it too. Matt wouldn't be sitting around like this, would he? Sora definitely would have weighed the options and been moving in an orderly fashion by now, and even Mimi would be doing something. Joe might have fallen down a few times, but he would have a trick or two up his sleeve to get himself out of this, wouldn't he? Here I sit, Izzy, the genius of the group, the guy who's always supposed to have our spare ace up his sleeve, and he has nothing.
"I guess it's not my fault. What am I saying, it's all my fault? My friends are in danger and I'm too scared to go rescue them." Izzy regained his calm for a minute before beginning to argue with himself again.
"So what can I rescue them with? What do I have, a useless crest, a laptop, and a D3 without a Digimon to make any use of. I don't have something like Courage to drive me forward, or Friendship to remind me of the bonds between us as friends. I don't have a strong crest like Matt, or Tai, or Sora, just little old Knowledge, and I don't really need to know how to reprogram my screensaver right now."
Izzy sat a moment, staring at his computer, and laughed. "No, Izzy's just a fraud. He may look like he can come up with all the right things, you know how it goes, last minute directions and weaknesses spotted. But really, he's only Koushiro Izumi, that kid who sits in the front of class, his nose in a book, or worse, his nose in a computer screen. Let's face it Koushiro, every time that you help in battle, it's because you're sitting there with your stupid laptop open, scanning for data. Everyone else does the fighting, but not Izzy. He may sound cool, like a Digidestined, someone who gets in there and fights evil, but he's just a figment of my imagination. I'm just little Koushiro Izumi, the kid who gets perfect grades in class, and gets beaten up outside unless his friends are along."
There was a moment of silence and then Izzy smashed his hand into the nearby counter. "No, I can't think like this. I'll find something. I have to. Everybody else is counting on me. Let's see what we've got here. Knowledge has to be useful for something."
He walked around a little. He stared around until he got bored. He looked at the bottles. He read the labels on the bottles, on the jars and on the machines.
He stopped in the middle of the room and thought for a moment, thinking so fast that you could almost watch the small, animal-like little thoughts bounce past his eyes, a surefire indication that somewhere, like a massive wildfire, the big thought was on its way. His lips moved soundlessly, as they struggled to keep up with the stream of images streaking past his eyes.
Izzy straightened up after a moment. His lips were still moving, and his fingers acted like they were skimming a page of homework long since filed in memory. He walked over to the cabinets and the storage bins again, the reflection showing a slight trembling in his figure. He looked at the labels. He read the labels.
Words were bubbling around in his brain, something like what might happen if a tiny tornado blitzkrieged its way through a dictionary, scattering words and names everywhere. Symbols and images, remembered from the past, darted hither and thither. Descriptions like Hydroflouric Acid, Hydrocloric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Liquid Nitrogen and Tri-Nitro-Toluene danced around in his head, zooming into his field of view and then out again. Sometimes they mixed together to form other words in his mind, words like Poison Gas, Explosive and Unstable, Etches Steel, and Melts Through Almost Everything. Ideas were whirring through his head at an accelerated rate.
Horrible thoughts began to surface in his head. Thoughts that self-respecting, polite and mild-mannered Koushiro Izumi would have been shocked senseless at ever having. Words and Ideas began to mix, bouncing up and down and demanding to be heard as they collided with each other. New synthesis, ideas born from ideas, formed and bounced around vigorously, mostly having to do with melting things down and seventy-two different synonyms for the basic word bang. Everything suddenly began to look a lot more interesting.
There was only one thing to say to that.
"Prodigious." Izzy breathed out, in almost a reverent whisper.
"I'm sorry I got us all trapped." Tai muttered, looking at his shoes.
"Don't worry about it Tai, I probably would have done the same thing." Matt did not look much better, or much happier about the affair. The two were sitting in opposite jail cells, both of them bereft of Digimon and D3. From calling up and down the line they had been able to find their other Digimon and realized that Izzy was missing. Tentomon reported that Izzy had fallen behind them somewhere, and that the rest of them had left him out of the trap, meaning that he was still probably out there.
"I hope Izzy is okay." Joe muttered to himself.
"Don't worry Joe. Izzy will be fine." Mimi tried to assure him. Mimi and Sora were doing their best to cheer up Joe, while up the hall Gomamon and Gabumon were doing their best to help out Tentomon.
"I hope he doesn't come looking for us." Joe looked up and down the hallway. It was bare metal as far as he could see in one direction, curving around out of sight. However, the clear electric fields (which, as Tai had discovered, gave them an awful shock), did not restrict their field of view very much, and in the other direction he could see the end of the sell block, with a pair of huge metal doors, looking like they were used in a blast pit, standing by to block the way. "I'm sure this is a trap. Any kind of tampering with this cell would probably set it off."
"You're probably right Joe." Sora sighed. "I hope he doesn't come."
"Come on, what kind of friend would I be if I did that?" There was a sudden blurring of shadows and then Izzy appeared, dropping own from a kind of catwalk above them onto the ground in the hallway. Everybody stared at him.
"Izzy!" Joe hissed, recovering from the surprise first. "Didn't you hear what I just said? It's a trap. Get out of here!"
"Sorry, I can't do that, but you're right, it probably is a trap. In fact, I bet that as soon as I mess with this circuit box here, the one that controls your doors, that will set off an alarm and guards will come pounding down the corridor. The door will also seal off automatically, to prevent us from making a run for it until all the guards are alerted." Izzy pointed to a gray box on the wall that was beeping and showing some lights. He reached into a backpack that now appeared to be bulging with stuff and pulled out a very strange looking piece of apparatus that looked just like he had stolen it from a chemistry lab. A flask of clear fluid had been attacked, by a hose made of rubber, to an improvised spigot that was now clamped shut. Izzy quickly braced the flask on a nearby shelf, and clamped the spigot to the box.
"Izzy, what are you doing?" Tai yelled at him.
"Watch and learn Tai. Watch and learn." Quickly, using a quick sucking from his mouth, like he was using a soda straw, he got the siphon going. "Ah, vacuum physics. It never ceases to amaze me."
"Izzy!" Joe almost screamed.
Izzy dropped into a position that they normally only used in school for their earthquake drills, holding his hands over the back of his head to protect his neck, and curling up into a ball, his back toward the entrance. The others all watched as the liquid worked its way through the hose and began its inexorable trek down to the end, to drip onto the box.
"Uh, you might want to duck." Izzy suggested timidly, a second before the liquid began to drip on the box.
Almost immediately, there was a sizzle as the liquid began to eat its way through the metal of the box, exposing the circuitry below as great, hissing globs of steam and particles better left unnamed floated upward. After a moment there was a wailing alarm, and the sudden pounding of heavy feet in a variety of different treads as the guards rushed toward the entrance to the cell block. A moment later there was a steady mechanical grinding noise as the doors moved to shut everyone inside. For a brief second there was the sound of mechanical confusion, as the doors encountered unexpected resistance before moving on. An observer would have noted that there was a large glass jar, expertly placed to get in the way exactly, sitting attached to the tracks of the door. They would have noticed, as the guards did as they rounded the corner, that the jar, which contained some sort of thick-looking liquid, would not delay the door at all, unless the liquid was as solid as a rock.
The glass shattered. The Nitroglycerin got smashed.
Among chemists, Nitroglycerin is one of the few distinct chemicals. Hardly any other substance has the effect of making an experienced chemist cry out the name of their deity of choice, and then hurl themselves out the second story window of their laboratory. For years people have known the truth. Nitroglycerin is easily excitable. It does not like being pushed. It does not like being swirled. It does not like being squeezed. And nobody likes an excited chemical. This is why chemists and engineers have developed a proper method, after much trial and error, of dealing with a shattered jar of Nitroglycerin falling toward the floor. This method involves not being in the same room as the event. If possible, you should even avoid being in the same building.
Several things happened when the doors ground shut, shattering the glass and its liquid between them. Most of them could be described using either the words Hot, or Loud. Many of them could be described with both. This was quickly followed by a series of balls of fire, torn walls, burnt ceilings and generally rise in the unsanitary aspects of the general workplace. Mere moments later, this was followed by a massive crunch as one of the doors fell off its hinges.
Tai, who, of course, had not ducked or sheltered his head, took a few moments to pick himself off the ground in the back of his cell. Outside Izzy was just rising from his sheltered position, looking a little scorched, and definitely a meter or so displaced from his original location. He shook himself a few times and tried to get the ashes off of his shirt, before giving up, shrugging and looking at the box on the wall. The air in front of him still flickered as the electric field held valiantly, imprisoning Tai within, but Izzy appeared unconcerned and merely started to fidget with the materials inside the box using a pair of thick gloves and something that looked like a pair of tweezers.
"I'm glad they had gloves in my size." Izzy conversed amiably with himself as he set to work on the electronic circuitry that was currently imprisoning them. "I'm also glad that the circuits are so basic. However, anywhere you go, capacitors are capacitors, and hopefully, when I feed this back through the grounding shunt"
There was a spark where he was working, and he jerked his fingers back to prevent it from catching them unawares. A moment later the walls echoed to a peculiar thud in the distance, as if an explosion had gone muffled by the walls surrounding it. In the door of the cell, the electric field winked a few times, and then went out with a sudden fizz.
"Excellent." Izzy exclaimed brightly as they began to sneak out of their cells. "Now we better get going before we get in trouble or something. I would hate to get caught after spending so much effort to escape."
"Right, so let's go." Joe pointed toward the doors.
"No, they'll expect that." Izzy raised a cautionary finger, and then pointed it at a blank wall in the back of the cell that had housed Tai. "We would be safer going in there."
"But that's just a jail cell." Tentomon exclaimed. "Izzy, I don't know what's come over you lately."
"I'm not sure either, but it confuses me as well Tentomon. I hope somebody explains it to me someday." While he was speaking Izzy had reached into his backpack and pulled out another large flask, this one sealed with some sort of metal. The liquid inside was bubbly and hissing. For a moment Izzy stared at it and the wall, as if calculating something, and then turned around to the others. "The plan is, I throw this, and then we run as fast as we can to farthest away cell. Right guys?"
Everyone backed up in answer.
"All right then!" Izzy turned around and hurled the flask at the wall, and then was running before it hit. Everyone else followed him in a panic, until they managed to scatter into the jail cell that used to house Agumon and squat there in panic. For a moment nothing happened.
"What was that?" Joe wanted to know as he got his breath back.
"A rather peculiar acid I concocted. It has the interesting effect of being able to burn small holes through metal."
"Small holes!" Agumon exclaimed. "But we need big holes!"
"Right, but Datamon is tremendously space efficient. If his plumbing diagrams are correct, the amount I added should be enough to melt just a few holes and allow the acid to spread inside the wall, and make some corrosion dents in his plumbing."
"That's it! You're going to give him a plumbing leak?" Tai demanded.
"I hope so, you see, with the water pressure that he has, that might be enough to cut through a steel plate. And in addition, that acid I threw has another interesting property. You might have noticed that it bubbled and hissed, right? That's because it reacts violently with water, and it was reacting with the water in the air in the bottle."
"How violently?" Matt was asking when another detonation rocked the cell corridor. This one was quieter than the first one, but it sent pieces of metal and debris flying everywhere, sending them bouncing back and forth like a pinball toward their end of the structure. There was also a steady hissing, like a pipe breaching steam, that gradually faded into a gentler rhythm.
"Ah, the wonders of the Hydroxide ion!" Izzy exclaimed brightly. "Shall we go?"
"Who are you, and what did you do with Izzy?" Joe asked after a stunned moment.
"Which way?" Tai asked as he rounded the corner at speed.
"I'm not sure, I didn't count on the feedback cutting out the power." Izzy yelled back. "The exit's sort of over that way, but I don't know how to get to it."
Lilymon buzzed up beside them. "I can take care of any more doors." She volunteered.
"Yeah, but I don't know how many more there are." Izzy returned, looking around. "It appears that the drop in water pressure has proven catastrophic to the coolant system for the main reactor, which has shut down the power grid everywhere. Nothing's going to blow up, but all of the doors will be shut, no matter where we go."
A Gazimon popped out of a side corridor, but a single glance at the huge Greymon and Garurumon looking down at him, sent him running off in another direction. Ikkakumon and Tentomon were bringing up the rear, and Izzy was frantically trying to figure a way out of this mess. Everywhere doors were slammed shut, lights alternated from on to off with alarming speed, and smoke curled in from various different rooms.
Izzy closed his eyes and tried to think back to his moment of inspiration when he had thought up this whole scheme. When he had thought of it, it was almost as if something had been whispering to him, telling him how to mix things together to get his intended result. His stint with the acid had been pure bravado, intellectually he was aware that no substance should be able to react like that, but his subconscious had been guiding him, and he had followed it unquestioningly. Now, he tried to sink down deeper, to relax himself and let the information flow into him.
It was similar to sinking deep into a pool of warm water, feeling the heat come up through the body and into the heart, a relaxing warmth that filled every crevice, nook and cranny of the inner body before making its way to the top. Izzy drifted, half-submerged in a vast ocean of knowledge, the Net Ocean, picking up a few hints here, and a few hints there, and letting his instincts guide him carefully. For a moment the sounds of what was going on outside seemed to waver and fade away, and even the sensation of burning as his chest started to glow with the purple of his crest, became a distant sensation.
"Tai, Sora, get down now!" Izzy screamed as he threw himself sideways onto the ground.
Behind the two of them a wall exploded into fragments. Shapes formed in the swirling debris, large shapes heading their way, which quickly resolved into Digimon, big ones, two Gorillamon and two Devidramon, led by none other than Datamon himself, floating in midair, one small mechanical arm pointed right at them. Izzy could feel the deadly words of an attack begin in Datamon's mechanical mind, and he could see with his eyes that it was extremely probable that several of his friends, especially Tai and Sora would be wiped out in the first shot.
His brain, seeing that the rest of him was temporarily distracted, reacted without giving him a chance to second guess its actions. One hand reached inside his sack and pulled out what looked like a heavy coffee thermos, the other hand wrenched off the cap. And, while everybody else was still trying to catch up to events, he tossed the entire container full of Liquid Nitrogen directly in Datamon's face.
Datamon iced up almost as if he had been treated to a dip in a lake, and was now being subjected to below freezing temperatures. Every surface instantly seemed to crystallize, and within seconds he looked like nothing more than a strangely-shaped Christmas decoration. Then, while everybody watched they could see his eyes flash faster and faster, as he began to extricate himself.
"Get them. Now!" Tai finally knew what to do. Greymon and Garurumon threw themselves on top of the Gorillamon, sending them all spinning and turning all over the floor. Ikkakumon leapt at one of the Devidramon, transforming himself into Zudomon halfway through his huge leap, and Lilymon bashed the other Devidramon straight through a wall, and then followed after.
"Tentomon!"
"Tentomon....digivolves to...Kabuterimon!"
"Get ready, as soon as Datamon gets out of there, he's going to be angry!" Izzy warned.
"Don't I know it. Let him be." Kabuterimon grumbled.
"Be careful." Sora cautioned both of them.
"Yeah, he is an Ultimate." Joe pointed out.
"I know that." Izzy returned.
The ice shattered. Shards of it flew through the air like daggers, and Izzy managed to duck just in time. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kabuterimon, swatted like a fly, slammed into the wall by the force of Datamon's emergence. Datamon focused on Izzy with real hate burning in his eyes, but Izzy ignored the emerging Ultimate, still buried in the flow of knowledge from the Net Ocean. When Izzy's eyes focused again, they blazed sudden fire at the furious Ultimate.
"Horn Buster!" A bolt of golden energy tore through the rubble and slammed into Datamon full force. The small machine-like digimon suddenly screeched in agony, and then his body distorted in the fire that slowly reduced him to digital data. MegaKabuterimon smashed his way through the rubble, to kneel in front of them in an unspoken signal.
"Everybody on!" Izzy yelled.
"But we didn't get Piximon!" Tai protested.
"I know, but I'll explain that on the way. We'll pick up Leomon and Ogremon on our way out. Now let's jet!"
Tai looked at Izzy, but the newfound respect that Izzy had just earned himself caused him merely to shrug, and to mount the huge insect with the other digidestined just behind. Then, with a roar of fire, they were off, soaring through the sky.
"So Piximon wasn't even there?" Leomon slammed a fist into his thigh.
"Yes, it appears that they decided the risk of a rescue mission was too high." Izzy reported. "So they moved him out by air last night."
"One lousy night." Matt muttered.
"It's not actually that bad Matt." Izzy replied calmly. "From what I pulled out of the data banks it seems they sent him by a group of heavily armed but slow air transports. That means that MegaKabuterimon can catch up to them today, and we can hit them tomorrow."
"So we still have a chance." Biyomon said quietly.
"Of course." Izzy grinned, the exhiliration still sweeping through him.
"Then let's do it." Tai pointed.
"Onward!"
Important: This is the sequel to The Hammer Falls. You should read that first, otherwise things won't make sense at all.
Storming the Gates
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot!
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England and St. George!'
The Life of Henry the Fifth, Act III, Scene I
William Shakespeare
"So, how's it going with Procyon?" Gennai lounged around, leaning against the wall in the room of the lounge, a room embellished with rich old polished woods that almost glowed a deep brown. The place was filled with the decorations of an old English sitting room, something created by nobility for nobility. Only a single set of computerized viewscreens looked out of place, sitting on top of a polished walnut desk in the corner.
"Acceptable I suppose." Justice lounged against the corner and watched the patterns of lights move overhead in the sky, dancing and weaving in and out of the heavens themselves.
"Not well I take it."
"Not as well as I would like." Justice does not move, does not give any indication. "Our casualties will be high."
"They always are." Gennai brushed a hand over a shelf of old books, as if looking for some ancient tome, but nothing attracted his interest.
"I must admit, the fact that we ended up impressing the Digidestined to clean up a mess we made, and to get involved in this pointless war, does sort of tug on my nerves."
"You're turning into an old man Justice. You know as well as I that what they have to do is necessary."
"I guess I am turning into an old man. I'm what, a thousand years old by this time, and older if you count experience. If I can't behave like an old man, who can? I just feel we could have at least given them a choice." Justice smiled and flipped one arm up to point at the sky.
"I can for one. I'm a lot older than you are you know."
Justice laughed. "That's it. We're a brace of foolish old men. What can we do?"
Gennai laid a gentle hand on Justice's shoulder. "Change the world old friend. Change the world."
Episode XIV
Powers Held on High
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
Knowledge itself is power
Religious Meditations, Of Heresies
Francis Bacon
Warning: Absolutely NO Ideas Past This Point!
Sign on the Citadel Edelver R&D Lab
Attributed to Cortell
"I hope so, I'm running out of places to look." Leomon peered around, as if his continued stare could pierce the clouds of darkness lurking under the branches of every tree.
"They couldn't have just packed up and moved everything, could they have?" Ogremon asked. "It would be just like them to leave us here all alone, wouldn't it."
"You still haven't said who this us is." Tai complained, staring around at the trunks of the old trees that lay here and there, decorating the landscape like a forest of misplaced Roman columns.
"Well, I trust them." Mimi replied heatedly.
"Hold on Mimi, it's not that I don't trust them. It's just that I hate being left out of the loop."
"Tai, you live out of the loop." Matt looked back at him.
"Oh no." Gabumon sighed. "Is it their turn to fight again already?"
"I hope not." Agumon just sounded tired. "I'm tired of cleaning up the mess afterwards."
"Ah ha!" Leomon pointed with one huge hairy paw. "Right through there I think."
"Halt, who goes there? What's the password?" Yelled another voice, coming out of the woods ahead. It sounded vaguely familiar to the rest of them.
"It's us Frigimon." Centarumon called, rearing up on his hind legs for just a moment to draw himself to his full height. "But we don't know the password at the moment."
"Oh, is it you? And who are you?" A familiar white head, looking like a snowman with a serious weight problem, peered around a tree suspiciously. A moment later the eyes widened. "Oh wow! Leomon, Ogremon, Centarumon! You must have escaped just a bit ago! Holy cow, I'm glad to see you guys. And what's this, new recruits?" The white head peered out even farther, and the eyes widened even more until the effect was comical. "Oh wow! It's even better! It's the Digidestined. Hey kids, remember me?"
"Of course we remember you. You and your sub-zero ice punch." Tai waved at him, laughing. "How are you doing Frigimon?"
"Well, not to good, we haven't been winning that much if you know what I mean, but other than that, I'm doing fine." Frigimon stepped all the way around, and he was as big as they all remembered him being from File Island. "But everyone will be really happy to see you, especially those that know you already."
"Know us already, what do you mean?" Izzy sounded curious, but Frigimon was already gesturing them to follow him. Quickly he led them through a maze of trees, occasionally looking around as if searching for landmarks, and then gesturing them onward again once he found his bearings.
"Did the boss make it out okay? When they attacked the tree we got caught inside and didn't see what happened up top." Leomon turned to Frigimon.
"Boss, what boss?" Tai asked impatiently, but Agumon grabbed onto his hand to keep him from plunging ahead in a verbal cavalry charge.
"Oh, you haven't heard." Frigimon's ears drooped, a difficult feat for a snowman. "No, no, he didn't get out. The others are trying to figure out a way to deal with that now."
"Really? Then we've arrived just in time." Leomon seemed pleased.
"Goody, some more action." Ogremon just sounded like he was trying to be tough.
At that moment Frigimon pushed aside some branches and exposed the entrance to what looked like a hill. For a moment they stared at it, before realizing that beneath the hill was an entire artificial cave, or, more accurately, the hill had been built on top of a large, rotund building. Inside they could just make out faint lights illuminating different parts of the building on a regular interval.
As they went inside, and as their eyes adjusted to the dark, the shapes inside, living Digimon moving around quietly, seemed to suddenly recognize their presence. Suddenly the shapes resolved into figures much more concrete and real-like, and a forest of curious eyes surrounded them, watching them.
"I am pleased to see you again Digidestined." The clanking voice was familiar, and Andromon stepped carefully and mechanically out from the crowd behind him. "I was informed that you were in this area, but I was not told that you would dropping by. And I am doubly pleased to see our comrades bravely rescued."
"Hey, we're all happy to see all of them." Meramon stepped forward as well, and from the way he winked it was virtually certain that this was the same Digimon who they had met so many years before.
"Hmmm" Tai had not realized how tall the building might stretch until Monzaemon showed up towering over him, staring down at him with giant red teddy bear eyes. "I certainly hadn't expected to see any of you for a long time. This is a pleasure."
"So this is where you all went!" Mimi exclaimed. "I wonder why we could never find you back in our area of the Digital World."
"Andromon was there." Agumon reminded them.
"Yes, I was the last." Andromon looked at them very seriously. "I was left as a last guard to keep watch on the land. Although I was not unable to prevent the arrival of the Digimon Emperor, I was able to assist you in some small way. Then I came here to aid these others in the defense of our world."
"So now is everybody here?" Tai asked.
"Almost everybody. We are still missing your old friend Piximon. Gennai placed him in charge of this little operation, but he appears to be missing from what Frigimon has told us." Leomon turned from the children to the group of Digimon who were staring at them.
"Piximon! He's here?" Mimi exclaimed.
"Was here." Andromon reported. "This is our emergency headquarters. Our old one used to be in a giant house inside a tree deep in the woods, a fair distance from here."
"We've been there. That's where we rescued them." Gabumon told the other group.
Andromon just nodded before continuing. "This is certainly something interesting. We will have to discuss it later. Anyway, the forces of Daemon found us there, and attacked before we could escape. Although we were sorely beset by our enemies, most of us managed to disappear into the surrounding forest. However, Piximon was trapped before he could complete the evacuation."
"Trapped. Where is he now?" Centarumon wanted to know.
"We believe that Datamon carted him off." Andromon raised a hand and a variety of digital lights appeared in the air before him in odd patterns. "Unimon, flying a high reconnaissance mission, managed to get a brief glimpse of what he thought was Piximon before he was carted off. However, at this point he was engaged by a pair of Kuwagamon, and was forced to withdraw from the field. We tracked the group he was with, and they appear to have taken him to Datamon's underground laboratory over by Kaltuth."
"Datamon!" Sora exclaimed, shivering just a little. "I thought he was destroyed."
"Perhaps he was, but this may be a new one. In any case, this Datamon is continually fixated on examining and cross-examining all Digimon, and he has been serving as Daemon's chief, wellscientist. We were just in the process of planning a rescue mission."
"Piximon's an old friend. I hope you'll count us in." Tai spoke up for the group.
"Yeah, and I wouldn't mind another crack at that walking tin can." Agumon growled.
"With you adding to our presence, it would not be difficult to dramatically increase our abilities." Andromon looked rather pleased. "It is not easy for us to risk Digimon in such a venture. But you are the Digidestined, and as such, have powers that we are not accustomed to. If you think that you can help"
"Better than that, we might be able to do it all. I think that Zudomon and Lilymon can handle that garbage disposal, and there's a distinct possibility that one of our Digimon might be able to go to Ultimate as well. Maybe all of ours." Matt sounded excited. "We're used to this sort of thing. We might as well do the work here."
"Yeah. No offense or anything, but with Piximon, wellit's sort of personal. Just tell us what you know and we'll get the job done." Tai sounded like he had decided that it was his turn to be mindlessly enthusiastic.
"Is it just me or are we starting to suffer from a lot of overconfidence?" Sora asked Izzy very quietly.
"I think it's worse. Matt was the one who suggested the attack, and he's usually the quiet one. I think Tai went along with it to avoid being one-upped by Matt. It's all really confusing to me, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about it." Izzy shrugged and went back to examining the display of lights zooming around in the air.
"I guess one thing's as good as another." Sora muttered as they sat around. Tai was already discussing things with Andromon about how they were going to fight, and where they were going to fight. Matt was helping out, volunteering what seemed to be partially absurd ideas. Mimi and Joe looked bored.
"Well, they will come up with something, and I'm sure it will be a workable plan. Don't worry Sora, everything will come out all right in the end, I'm certain of it."
"So, that's the place?" Tai asked, squinting through his goggles.
"That's the place all right." Leomon looked down. The spot he was looking at was built into the canyon walls, a single door made out of what looked like battleship-grade steel armor. If Izzy and Andromon were correct, the vast plateau stretching out toward the horizon provided the roof for Datamon's underground laboratory, and the door might be the only entrance.
"Ventilation shafts?" Matt asked Izzy, who was trying to zoom in on things with his laptop.
"Of course. Do you think you can squeeze through the force shields and the energy traps? This isn't a spy movie. I don't know if such things even exist here, but I think that Datamon has already heard of them, and he appears to have trapped his ventilation ducts."
"Back door?" Tai suggested.
"Checked and double checked. He doesn't seem to have one."
"Escape tunnel?" Matt looked around for a pile of rock that would make a handy exit.
"Can't find one at all. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need one, or maybe it's too well hidden. Maybe he just has some sort of portal generator somewhere in his lab. And even if we could find it, I bet it's full of traps and alarms."
"Aqueduct?" Joe thought for a moment.
"Underground water table. We might as well try to dig our way in." Izzy looked down at the map again.
"Chimneys, exhaust pipes?" Joe continued.
"Hmmmmdon't seem to be any. Of course, since this is the DigiWorld, I'm hardly surprised at this turn of events."
"Well, you're just full of good news, aren't you." Tai sounded like he was sulking and he turned back to watching the plateau as if more watching would create a door for him. Wind stirred his hair for a moment, but nothing happened across the valley.
"I'm sorry Tai, I can't create things that aren't there." Izzy replied, not sounding very happy himself, but the others had already turned to other topics.
"Maybe we could fool the guards and walk in." Tai was elaborating his plan with a series of over-enthusiastic hand gestures.
"Maybe, but I doubt it." Matt replied, pointing. "Look, we've been surveying the whole area for almost a day now, and we haven't seen anybody. It's pretty obvious that they aren't expecting somebody to just come knocking on the door."
"We could say we were lost." Mimi suggested brightly. "Maybe they'd let us in to help us."
"With Datamon it's more likely they would let us in to do experiments on us." Sora replied, shooting Mimi a quick look.
"Oh well, it was just an idea." Mimi looked just a little embarrassed.
"I have an idea." Joe suggested after a moment.
"What?" Everybody asked a bit waspishly.
"Well, once when I was littler, our upstairs neighbor was doing some experimenting with a large, heavy, fish tank. He dropped it off its pedestal, and it fell right through the ceiling and drenched me with about two hundred liters of fish water and a very irritated snapping turtle. It took them half an hour to get the stupid thing to let go of me. I was just thinking, could we go through his roof. After all, it's right there. Then again, it's probably a pretty stupid idea."
"Actually, that's a pretty good idea. I think we might be able to do it. Izzy?"
"Leave it to me to fill in the details. Let me checkif geological patterns match thenhow does this work again.let's see, comparative hardness goes heresay allowing for steel support roofcompute stress modulushopefully get an answer. Okay, yes, I think that if we use Zudomon we can smash through the roof, but it will create a lot of noise."
"Don't worry about that." Leomon swelled up. "Ogremon and I will launch an assault on the doors as a feint to distract them, and give you time to break in. If we make enough noise they might not even notice you, and you can get out with Piximon before they even realize you're there."
"Too bad." Tai sighed. "And here I was looking forward to taking a can opener to that arrogant jerk."
"Why do I have to do all the work?" Gomamon asked, in the tone of voice that indicated that it was time to needle Joe again.
"Well, I suppose we could give you all shovels instead" Joe began, but Gomamon backed off as all the other Digimon glared at him.
"All right, it's decided!" Tai stated. "Let's kick it off!"
I think there's something wrong with this, Izzy told himself sternly, but I can't figure out what it is, so I don't think that I'm going to worry about it.
"Fist of the Beast King!"
"Pummel Whack!"
Two furious explosions made their way across the front of the plateau, blasting away chunks of old rock, the color of beach sand, and leaving a fine mist of dirt and debris in their wake. Two blasts, one of purple fire, and one of a corresponding orange, did the work of about ten thousand years of erosion in a matter of seconds. As the dirt settled, the door remained intact, although now pitted, but the area around the door was blown about half a meter inward.
It had been Sora and Biyomon who pointed out, while they were still planning everything, that the area around the door might not be as strong as the door itself, and more susceptible to their vigorous attack. It might even be possible to blow the supports around the door down. Leomon and Ogremon were only supposed to be providing a distraction, but they acted as if they had every intention of storming the gates all by themselves.
"Man, it looks like they haven't even noticed." Joe remarked, peering at the whole scene.
"Well, if I was them, I would be waiting inside the building." Gabumon responded. "That way, when they came through the door, they would be caught in a crossfire."
"Then it's a good thing they aren't going through that door." Tentomon fluttered and hovered anxiously nearby.
"Indeed." Izzy looked around a little anxiously.
"Shall we get to it?" Agumon asked nervously.
"Let's go, I'm tired of standing out here in the open." Tai complained, looking grumpier than usual.
"Right, time to go Gomamon." Joe grabbed his D3 and thrust it out.
"Gomamondigivolves toIkkakumon!"
"Ikkakumondigivolves toZudomon!"
"Vulcan's Hammer!" A massive blow with the gray metal hammer removed any trace of doubt from their minds as to the Ultimate's awe inspiring muscle power. Rock shattered and pummeled into oblivion under the force of that mighty hammer, sending chips flying through the air like knives. Fortunately, Zudomon, with some foresight, had placed himself between them and the impact sight, meaning that the chips and dangerous parts flicked off of him instead of impacting in soft flesh. As the dust cleared everybody could see a huge hole in the carved rock, descending into a cavern sheathed in smooth metal, and illuminated brightly by artificial lighting.
"Looks like we got in. De-Digivolve Zudomon, and we'll see if we can sneak in quietly, eh?"
"Quietly? Just how do we do that?" Biyomon murmured as she observed the huge hole they had just created in the ground.
"Never mind that, let's just go." Matt muttered impatiently.
"This place is empty." Sora told them, coming back from the gray-metal door that she had just opened and looked through. "If there's anybody here, they're doing a really good job of hiding."
Ceiling tiles lay around them in random patterns, marking the method they had used to enter the building. Computers, standing on metal tables and counters around the room, were the predominant devices, along with the huge black viewscreens mounted along the walls. Buttons flashed in what seemed like random patterns, different colors as well, red, blue and green, illuminating the walls. Glowing white fluorescent lamps glared down at them like baleful eyes, wondering at this strange intrusion. One screen still functioned, and it displayed a variety of different views of what appeared to be the structure that they were in.
"You see that?" Tai asked, pointing at the functioning screen. "Security cameras. I bet this place is some kind of security center, and what we're looking at is the master control system."
"Or something. Come on, this place makes me nervous." Agumon started fidgeting again, watching as Gomamon greedily gulped down a few pieces of dried bread.
"No. Izzy, see if you can tap into the computers and find out where they're keeping Piximon."
"Right." Izzy plugged his trusty laptop into the system and let the data streams wash over him, but hardly needed to use his hacking skills. A quick inquiry, sent into the system's mainframe returned a quick response, a suspiciously quick response, along with a map, showing both their position and the location of the goal which they were seeking. A map popped up, in three dimensions, displaying their situation in rendered detail, and showing their problems.
"Wow, so this is us? Good, then Datamon is keeping Piximon in a cage of some sort right down that hallway." Tai pointed. "Let's go."
"Wait for me!" Matt called as Tai charged off down the hallway.
"And us!" Everybody else shouted, rushing after them.
"Give me a moment guys." Izzy pleaded as he struggled to disconnect his laptop from the computer mainframe without causing undue problems. Meanwhile, as he fumbled with the computer cable, and as it seemed determined to snare him and snarl in the worst possible way, he struggled with a difficult concept. Why is it, in the middle of an attack, the security center is unmanned?
"All right, now where?" Tai asked as he screeched to a halt, with the others almost running into him from behind, staring around quizzically at the bare metal walls that enclosed them. Instead of the promised cage and jail sequence everywhere they looked they were surrounded by bits of metal and machinery, looking, for all the world, like the reject pile in an automobile junkyard. Overhead, the lights buzzed erratically with the force of the last attack, causing an unpleasant buzzing sound, and an uneven, flickering, light.
His answer came in the form of a metallic crunch, as the doorway behind him slammed shut, a huge slab of solid steel sealing them inside the artificial cavern. For a moment, nobody moved as the reverberations of that impact echoed and re-echoed inside the hallway, rattling loose components in the pieces of junk scattered around. Then, as one, they all turned around rapidly, spinning in circles in a vain attempt to find an exit.
"It's a trap!" Joe howled.
"Quick, we'll digivolve and blow our way out of here" Agumon began, but then the became aware of another sound, partially hidden in the echoes of their panic. Hissing, at first faint, but then increasingly loud, emerged from the cracks at the corner of the room they were now trapped in. Artfully concealed by the piled junk, pneumatic jets spewed forth a strange concoction of gases into the room, gases which quickly spread and enveloped everyone in a thick blanket of fog.
Within seconds everybody was collapsed on the floor, unconscious and passed out, waiting for another to deal with them.
After a few minutes there was a sucking sound, and the gases were quickly removed from the atmosphere, replaced with regular air. Ahead of them the door cracked open, and several sinister figures were revealed, marching in to take charge of the situation. A pair of Minotaurumon and a pair of Gorillamon quickly began to manhandle their charges outside into a waiting cart. Beside them, the small, metallic shape of Datamon moved steadily through the sudden mess on his floors, examining each body. At the end of his impromptu investigation, he stood up angrily.
"The six Digimon are here, but there are only five humans! Where is the missing Digidestined!? Find them now!"
Koushiro Izumi, known usually to his friends as Izzy huddled inside a storage cabinet, feeling alone and lost and useless, which meant that he was too miserable to worry a lot about being hungry, tired and thirsty. Fortunately, from the dust that was hovering everywhere this place had not been bothered in some time, so he felt fairly safe living here for the time being. This should not be confused into thinking that he felt safe, he just felt safer in here than he did out there.
In here was someplace fairly big, a large room, gray to match the rest of this strange outpost's décor, and stacked with boxes and crates of different sizes and shapes in neat, orderly piles, each one decorated with a single attachment that appeared to be some sort of data storage device to mark them. Izzy had so far been unable to determine either what was inside of them, or exactly where he was, or what he should do next.
All he did know was what had happened. When the doors slammed shut, he and his laptop were still on the wrong side, but everyone else was on the other side. At that point he had started banging on the doors, but loud sounds had warned him of the approach of others. Under the cover of the sudden confusion, he had managed to slip into a narrow side passage just in time to witness the arrival of the main force through another door. Identifying Datamon and the others, and realizing just how completely outmatched he was without Tentomon and the others, he had crept away, not wanting to be anywhere near when Datamon actually got around to counting his prisoners. Now, several corridors and empty rooms later, the panic instincts had been suppressed, and the normal guilt reflex was kicking in.
"Why did I do that?" He asked himself, pounding one leg angrily. "I should have stayed and helped them. But I did the best I could, didn't I?"
The crates and boxes steadfastly refused to give him an answer.
"Okay, not a good time to panic Izzy. Take a few deep breaths and calm yourself, count to ten, do something to keep your cool." Izzy breathed in and out deeply five times before he felt calm enough to proceed to the next logical steps in the plan. "Now do something productive. What do you have to do? Right now, you have to hide. Have you done that?"
This time, although silence reigned supreme, the enclosing walls of boxes and crates gave him a reassuring answer.
"All right, so we've got that taken care of. Now for the next part, what else do you have to do? First keep alive and out of Datamon's clutches, then rescue your friends. Right? Right. That should cover everything. Now, how do we do that?"
Nothing answered him.
"Blast it Izumi!" Izzy slammed his fist down on the ground, almost hard enough to break bones. "You've got to have some idea, something, anythinggo see what you've got around you."
He cautiously got up, ears alert to any sound. Before he even made it to the door, the sound of blowing air in the distance and the creaks of the compound sending his heart rate soaring and causing him to freeze in panicked terror three times. By the time he actually got to the door and cautiously pulled it open a single crack he was nearing collapse from the simple fear and the confusion of being alone, but there was nothing else to do, so he pulled the door open.
On the other side was a very large room that looked very familiar to Izzy. Each wall was lined with huge cabinets with clear, plastic doors, each one filled with rows of shaped glass and plastic, glimmering in artificial light almost like the tinsel on a Christmas tree. Some of those containers were full and labeled, some were not. The middle of the room was filled with a variety of different machines and computers, some of which Izzy recognized as basic laboratory equipment, gleaming as if they had all been recently cleaned. Computers and monitoring devices beeped happily along their current path, as if they were waiting for something exciting to happen, erratically welcoming the observing eye and ear to examine their findings so far. Circuits hummed in the distance, beginning at a very low pitch and rising higher and higher as different devices engaged, and then falling off as they disengaged. There was nobody in sight, and from the state of the huge, solid-steel, double-barred doors, there was unlikely to be anybody there for a long time.
"Hmmmit appears that Datamon is engaging in research of some sort, perhaps some basic fundamental science. It would appear not to be that complicated if I can recognize most of the machinery. Well, this appears to be a dull sort of laboratory, so I should be reasonably safe here, for the time being that is." Izzy wandered briefly through the machinery as if wondering what everything was doing, prodding and poking curiously through the mess of gear, as if another prod would reveal some previously hidden insight to the investigator. Finally, after a long time, he sat down and absently started downloading data of the local mainframe into his computer at a handy computer connection, first taking care to instigate a number of different methods for keeping his computer link untraceable.
"Why am I sitting here?" he asked himself after a minute. "There's not much happening here, is there, or am I falling victim to my fear? That is an unpleasant possibility."
Somewhere in the distance there was a faint clank as a machine turned over whatever it had been examining and then began to examine it from a different direction. A few beams of light from a laser apparatus hidden in the background played over the ceiling as if there was sunlight, shining through a spinning piece of glass.
"I wish it were someone else here. Tai would have thought up a plan by now, and implemented it too. Matt wouldn't be sitting around like this, would he? Sora definitely would have weighed the options and been moving in an orderly fashion by now, and even Mimi would be doing something. Joe might have fallen down a few times, but he would have a trick or two up his sleeve to get himself out of this, wouldn't he? Here I sit, Izzy, the genius of the group, the guy who's always supposed to have our spare ace up his sleeve, and he has nothing.
"I guess it's not my fault. What am I saying, it's all my fault? My friends are in danger and I'm too scared to go rescue them." Izzy regained his calm for a minute before beginning to argue with himself again.
"So what can I rescue them with? What do I have, a useless crest, a laptop, and a D3 without a Digimon to make any use of. I don't have something like Courage to drive me forward, or Friendship to remind me of the bonds between us as friends. I don't have a strong crest like Matt, or Tai, or Sora, just little old Knowledge, and I don't really need to know how to reprogram my screensaver right now."
Izzy sat a moment, staring at his computer, and laughed. "No, Izzy's just a fraud. He may look like he can come up with all the right things, you know how it goes, last minute directions and weaknesses spotted. But really, he's only Koushiro Izumi, that kid who sits in the front of class, his nose in a book, or worse, his nose in a computer screen. Let's face it Koushiro, every time that you help in battle, it's because you're sitting there with your stupid laptop open, scanning for data. Everyone else does the fighting, but not Izzy. He may sound cool, like a Digidestined, someone who gets in there and fights evil, but he's just a figment of my imagination. I'm just little Koushiro Izumi, the kid who gets perfect grades in class, and gets beaten up outside unless his friends are along."
There was a moment of silence and then Izzy smashed his hand into the nearby counter. "No, I can't think like this. I'll find something. I have to. Everybody else is counting on me. Let's see what we've got here. Knowledge has to be useful for something."
He walked around a little. He stared around until he got bored. He looked at the bottles. He read the labels on the bottles, on the jars and on the machines.
He stopped in the middle of the room and thought for a moment, thinking so fast that you could almost watch the small, animal-like little thoughts bounce past his eyes, a surefire indication that somewhere, like a massive wildfire, the big thought was on its way. His lips moved soundlessly, as they struggled to keep up with the stream of images streaking past his eyes.
Izzy straightened up after a moment. His lips were still moving, and his fingers acted like they were skimming a page of homework long since filed in memory. He walked over to the cabinets and the storage bins again, the reflection showing a slight trembling in his figure. He looked at the labels. He read the labels.
Words were bubbling around in his brain, something like what might happen if a tiny tornado blitzkrieged its way through a dictionary, scattering words and names everywhere. Symbols and images, remembered from the past, darted hither and thither. Descriptions like Hydroflouric Acid, Hydrocloric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Liquid Nitrogen and Tri-Nitro-Toluene danced around in his head, zooming into his field of view and then out again. Sometimes they mixed together to form other words in his mind, words like Poison Gas, Explosive and Unstable, Etches Steel, and Melts Through Almost Everything. Ideas were whirring through his head at an accelerated rate.
Horrible thoughts began to surface in his head. Thoughts that self-respecting, polite and mild-mannered Koushiro Izumi would have been shocked senseless at ever having. Words and Ideas began to mix, bouncing up and down and demanding to be heard as they collided with each other. New synthesis, ideas born from ideas, formed and bounced around vigorously, mostly having to do with melting things down and seventy-two different synonyms for the basic word bang. Everything suddenly began to look a lot more interesting.
There was only one thing to say to that.
"Prodigious." Izzy breathed out, in almost a reverent whisper.
"I'm sorry I got us all trapped." Tai muttered, looking at his shoes.
"Don't worry about it Tai, I probably would have done the same thing." Matt did not look much better, or much happier about the affair. The two were sitting in opposite jail cells, both of them bereft of Digimon and D3. From calling up and down the line they had been able to find their other Digimon and realized that Izzy was missing. Tentomon reported that Izzy had fallen behind them somewhere, and that the rest of them had left him out of the trap, meaning that he was still probably out there.
"I hope Izzy is okay." Joe muttered to himself.
"Don't worry Joe. Izzy will be fine." Mimi tried to assure him. Mimi and Sora were doing their best to cheer up Joe, while up the hall Gomamon and Gabumon were doing their best to help out Tentomon.
"I hope he doesn't come looking for us." Joe looked up and down the hallway. It was bare metal as far as he could see in one direction, curving around out of sight. However, the clear electric fields (which, as Tai had discovered, gave them an awful shock), did not restrict their field of view very much, and in the other direction he could see the end of the sell block, with a pair of huge metal doors, looking like they were used in a blast pit, standing by to block the way. "I'm sure this is a trap. Any kind of tampering with this cell would probably set it off."
"You're probably right Joe." Sora sighed. "I hope he doesn't come."
"Come on, what kind of friend would I be if I did that?" There was a sudden blurring of shadows and then Izzy appeared, dropping own from a kind of catwalk above them onto the ground in the hallway. Everybody stared at him.
"Izzy!" Joe hissed, recovering from the surprise first. "Didn't you hear what I just said? It's a trap. Get out of here!"
"Sorry, I can't do that, but you're right, it probably is a trap. In fact, I bet that as soon as I mess with this circuit box here, the one that controls your doors, that will set off an alarm and guards will come pounding down the corridor. The door will also seal off automatically, to prevent us from making a run for it until all the guards are alerted." Izzy pointed to a gray box on the wall that was beeping and showing some lights. He reached into a backpack that now appeared to be bulging with stuff and pulled out a very strange looking piece of apparatus that looked just like he had stolen it from a chemistry lab. A flask of clear fluid had been attacked, by a hose made of rubber, to an improvised spigot that was now clamped shut. Izzy quickly braced the flask on a nearby shelf, and clamped the spigot to the box.
"Izzy, what are you doing?" Tai yelled at him.
"Watch and learn Tai. Watch and learn." Quickly, using a quick sucking from his mouth, like he was using a soda straw, he got the siphon going. "Ah, vacuum physics. It never ceases to amaze me."
"Izzy!" Joe almost screamed.
Izzy dropped into a position that they normally only used in school for their earthquake drills, holding his hands over the back of his head to protect his neck, and curling up into a ball, his back toward the entrance. The others all watched as the liquid worked its way through the hose and began its inexorable trek down to the end, to drip onto the box.
"Uh, you might want to duck." Izzy suggested timidly, a second before the liquid began to drip on the box.
Almost immediately, there was a sizzle as the liquid began to eat its way through the metal of the box, exposing the circuitry below as great, hissing globs of steam and particles better left unnamed floated upward. After a moment there was a wailing alarm, and the sudden pounding of heavy feet in a variety of different treads as the guards rushed toward the entrance to the cell block. A moment later there was a steady mechanical grinding noise as the doors moved to shut everyone inside. For a brief second there was the sound of mechanical confusion, as the doors encountered unexpected resistance before moving on. An observer would have noted that there was a large glass jar, expertly placed to get in the way exactly, sitting attached to the tracks of the door. They would have noticed, as the guards did as they rounded the corner, that the jar, which contained some sort of thick-looking liquid, would not delay the door at all, unless the liquid was as solid as a rock.
The glass shattered. The Nitroglycerin got smashed.
Among chemists, Nitroglycerin is one of the few distinct chemicals. Hardly any other substance has the effect of making an experienced chemist cry out the name of their deity of choice, and then hurl themselves out the second story window of their laboratory. For years people have known the truth. Nitroglycerin is easily excitable. It does not like being pushed. It does not like being swirled. It does not like being squeezed. And nobody likes an excited chemical. This is why chemists and engineers have developed a proper method, after much trial and error, of dealing with a shattered jar of Nitroglycerin falling toward the floor. This method involves not being in the same room as the event. If possible, you should even avoid being in the same building.
Several things happened when the doors ground shut, shattering the glass and its liquid between them. Most of them could be described using either the words Hot, or Loud. Many of them could be described with both. This was quickly followed by a series of balls of fire, torn walls, burnt ceilings and generally rise in the unsanitary aspects of the general workplace. Mere moments later, this was followed by a massive crunch as one of the doors fell off its hinges.
Tai, who, of course, had not ducked or sheltered his head, took a few moments to pick himself off the ground in the back of his cell. Outside Izzy was just rising from his sheltered position, looking a little scorched, and definitely a meter or so displaced from his original location. He shook himself a few times and tried to get the ashes off of his shirt, before giving up, shrugging and looking at the box on the wall. The air in front of him still flickered as the electric field held valiantly, imprisoning Tai within, but Izzy appeared unconcerned and merely started to fidget with the materials inside the box using a pair of thick gloves and something that looked like a pair of tweezers.
"I'm glad they had gloves in my size." Izzy conversed amiably with himself as he set to work on the electronic circuitry that was currently imprisoning them. "I'm also glad that the circuits are so basic. However, anywhere you go, capacitors are capacitors, and hopefully, when I feed this back through the grounding shunt"
There was a spark where he was working, and he jerked his fingers back to prevent it from catching them unawares. A moment later the walls echoed to a peculiar thud in the distance, as if an explosion had gone muffled by the walls surrounding it. In the door of the cell, the electric field winked a few times, and then went out with a sudden fizz.
"Excellent." Izzy exclaimed brightly as they began to sneak out of their cells. "Now we better get going before we get in trouble or something. I would hate to get caught after spending so much effort to escape."
"Right, so let's go." Joe pointed toward the doors.
"No, they'll expect that." Izzy raised a cautionary finger, and then pointed it at a blank wall in the back of the cell that had housed Tai. "We would be safer going in there."
"But that's just a jail cell." Tentomon exclaimed. "Izzy, I don't know what's come over you lately."
"I'm not sure either, but it confuses me as well Tentomon. I hope somebody explains it to me someday." While he was speaking Izzy had reached into his backpack and pulled out another large flask, this one sealed with some sort of metal. The liquid inside was bubbly and hissing. For a moment Izzy stared at it and the wall, as if calculating something, and then turned around to the others. "The plan is, I throw this, and then we run as fast as we can to farthest away cell. Right guys?"
Everyone backed up in answer.
"All right then!" Izzy turned around and hurled the flask at the wall, and then was running before it hit. Everyone else followed him in a panic, until they managed to scatter into the jail cell that used to house Agumon and squat there in panic. For a moment nothing happened.
"What was that?" Joe wanted to know as he got his breath back.
"A rather peculiar acid I concocted. It has the interesting effect of being able to burn small holes through metal."
"Small holes!" Agumon exclaimed. "But we need big holes!"
"Right, but Datamon is tremendously space efficient. If his plumbing diagrams are correct, the amount I added should be enough to melt just a few holes and allow the acid to spread inside the wall, and make some corrosion dents in his plumbing."
"That's it! You're going to give him a plumbing leak?" Tai demanded.
"I hope so, you see, with the water pressure that he has, that might be enough to cut through a steel plate. And in addition, that acid I threw has another interesting property. You might have noticed that it bubbled and hissed, right? That's because it reacts violently with water, and it was reacting with the water in the air in the bottle."
"How violently?" Matt was asking when another detonation rocked the cell corridor. This one was quieter than the first one, but it sent pieces of metal and debris flying everywhere, sending them bouncing back and forth like a pinball toward their end of the structure. There was also a steady hissing, like a pipe breaching steam, that gradually faded into a gentler rhythm.
"Ah, the wonders of the Hydroxide ion!" Izzy exclaimed brightly. "Shall we go?"
"Who are you, and what did you do with Izzy?" Joe asked after a stunned moment.
"Which way?" Tai asked as he rounded the corner at speed.
"I'm not sure, I didn't count on the feedback cutting out the power." Izzy yelled back. "The exit's sort of over that way, but I don't know how to get to it."
Lilymon buzzed up beside them. "I can take care of any more doors." She volunteered.
"Yeah, but I don't know how many more there are." Izzy returned, looking around. "It appears that the drop in water pressure has proven catastrophic to the coolant system for the main reactor, which has shut down the power grid everywhere. Nothing's going to blow up, but all of the doors will be shut, no matter where we go."
A Gazimon popped out of a side corridor, but a single glance at the huge Greymon and Garurumon looking down at him, sent him running off in another direction. Ikkakumon and Tentomon were bringing up the rear, and Izzy was frantically trying to figure a way out of this mess. Everywhere doors were slammed shut, lights alternated from on to off with alarming speed, and smoke curled in from various different rooms.
Izzy closed his eyes and tried to think back to his moment of inspiration when he had thought up this whole scheme. When he had thought of it, it was almost as if something had been whispering to him, telling him how to mix things together to get his intended result. His stint with the acid had been pure bravado, intellectually he was aware that no substance should be able to react like that, but his subconscious had been guiding him, and he had followed it unquestioningly. Now, he tried to sink down deeper, to relax himself and let the information flow into him.
It was similar to sinking deep into a pool of warm water, feeling the heat come up through the body and into the heart, a relaxing warmth that filled every crevice, nook and cranny of the inner body before making its way to the top. Izzy drifted, half-submerged in a vast ocean of knowledge, the Net Ocean, picking up a few hints here, and a few hints there, and letting his instincts guide him carefully. For a moment the sounds of what was going on outside seemed to waver and fade away, and even the sensation of burning as his chest started to glow with the purple of his crest, became a distant sensation.
"Tai, Sora, get down now!" Izzy screamed as he threw himself sideways onto the ground.
Behind the two of them a wall exploded into fragments. Shapes formed in the swirling debris, large shapes heading their way, which quickly resolved into Digimon, big ones, two Gorillamon and two Devidramon, led by none other than Datamon himself, floating in midair, one small mechanical arm pointed right at them. Izzy could feel the deadly words of an attack begin in Datamon's mechanical mind, and he could see with his eyes that it was extremely probable that several of his friends, especially Tai and Sora would be wiped out in the first shot.
His brain, seeing that the rest of him was temporarily distracted, reacted without giving him a chance to second guess its actions. One hand reached inside his sack and pulled out what looked like a heavy coffee thermos, the other hand wrenched off the cap. And, while everybody else was still trying to catch up to events, he tossed the entire container full of Liquid Nitrogen directly in Datamon's face.
Datamon iced up almost as if he had been treated to a dip in a lake, and was now being subjected to below freezing temperatures. Every surface instantly seemed to crystallize, and within seconds he looked like nothing more than a strangely-shaped Christmas decoration. Then, while everybody watched they could see his eyes flash faster and faster, as he began to extricate himself.
"Get them. Now!" Tai finally knew what to do. Greymon and Garurumon threw themselves on top of the Gorillamon, sending them all spinning and turning all over the floor. Ikkakumon leapt at one of the Devidramon, transforming himself into Zudomon halfway through his huge leap, and Lilymon bashed the other Devidramon straight through a wall, and then followed after.
"Tentomon!"
"Tentomon....digivolves to...Kabuterimon!"
"Get ready, as soon as Datamon gets out of there, he's going to be angry!" Izzy warned.
"Don't I know it. Let him be." Kabuterimon grumbled.
"Be careful." Sora cautioned both of them.
"Yeah, he is an Ultimate." Joe pointed out.
"I know that." Izzy returned.
The ice shattered. Shards of it flew through the air like daggers, and Izzy managed to duck just in time. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kabuterimon, swatted like a fly, slammed into the wall by the force of Datamon's emergence. Datamon focused on Izzy with real hate burning in his eyes, but Izzy ignored the emerging Ultimate, still buried in the flow of knowledge from the Net Ocean. When Izzy's eyes focused again, they blazed sudden fire at the furious Ultimate.
"Horn Buster!" A bolt of golden energy tore through the rubble and slammed into Datamon full force. The small machine-like digimon suddenly screeched in agony, and then his body distorted in the fire that slowly reduced him to digital data. MegaKabuterimon smashed his way through the rubble, to kneel in front of them in an unspoken signal.
"Everybody on!" Izzy yelled.
"But we didn't get Piximon!" Tai protested.
"I know, but I'll explain that on the way. We'll pick up Leomon and Ogremon on our way out. Now let's jet!"
Tai looked at Izzy, but the newfound respect that Izzy had just earned himself caused him merely to shrug, and to mount the huge insect with the other digidestined just behind. Then, with a roar of fire, they were off, soaring through the sky.
"So Piximon wasn't even there?" Leomon slammed a fist into his thigh.
"Yes, it appears that they decided the risk of a rescue mission was too high." Izzy reported. "So they moved him out by air last night."
"One lousy night." Matt muttered.
"It's not actually that bad Matt." Izzy replied calmly. "From what I pulled out of the data banks it seems they sent him by a group of heavily armed but slow air transports. That means that MegaKabuterimon can catch up to them today, and we can hit them tomorrow."
"So we still have a chance." Biyomon said quietly.
"Of course." Izzy grinned, the exhiliration still sweeping through him.
"Then let's do it." Tai pointed.
"Onward!"
| To Be Continued... |